[225] Precious names! What is a pilgrim without knowledge? What is head-knowledge without heart-experience? And watchfulness and sincerity ought to attend us every step. When these graces are in us and abound, they make delectable mountains indeed-(Mason).
[226] Fine-spun speculations and curious reasonings lead men from simple truth and implicit faith into many dangerous and destructive errors-(Mason).
[227] It is well for us to be much on this mount. We have constant need of caution. Take heed and beware, says our Lord. Paul takes the Corinthians up to this Mount Caution, and shows them what awful things have happened to professors of old; and he leaves this solemn word for us, "Wherefore, let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall" (1 Cor. 10:12)-(Mason).
[228] O the unthought-of imaginations, frights, fears, and terrors, that are effected by a thorough application of guilt, yielding to desperation! This is the man that hath his dwelling among the tombs with the dead, that is always crying out, and cutting himself with stones (Mark 5:3). But all in vain; desperation will not comfort him, the old covenant will not save him-(Grace Abounding, No. 185).
[229] Some retain the name of Christ, and the notion of Him as a Saviour; but cast Him off in the very things wherein the essential parts of His sacrifice, merits, and priesthood consist. In this lies the mystery of their iniquity. They dare not altogether deny that Christ doth save His people, as a Priest; but then their art is to confound His offices, until they jostle out of doors the merit of His blood and the perfection of His justifying righteousness. Such draw away the people from the cross (put out their eyes), and lead them among the infidels-(Bunyan's Israel's Hope, vol. 1, p. 615).
[230] Probably to guard pilgrims against the Popish doctrine of auricular confession-(ED).
[231] Those seem to shun the common broad road; but having only the mark of religion, while their hearts are not right with God, are as effectually ruined as the most profligate and open offenders-(Burder).
[232] Thus we read of some who were once enlightened, and had tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the world to come (Heb. 6:6). It is hard to say how far or how long a person may carry on a profession, and yet fall away, and come short of the kingdom at last. This should excite to diligence, humility, and circumspection, ever looking to Jesus to keep us from falling-(Mason).
[233] It reflects the highest credit on the diffidence of Bunyan's genius-a genius as rich in its inventions, and as aspiring in its imaginative flights, as ever poet could possess or lay claim to-that, after such an exordium, he should have made no effort minutely to describe what was in its own splendour of glory indescribable. How beautifully, without exciting any disappointment in a reader of taste, feeling, and judgment, does he, by a few artless words, render most impressive and sublime, what more elaborate description could only have made confused and unsatisfactory. Nothing can be more admirable than this brief and indistinct report of the perspective glass, it cannot offend the most fastidious taste, yet leaves scope for the exercise of the most ardent and aspiring imagination-(Bernard Barton). [234] Such mountains round about this house do stand. As one from thence may see the Holy Land.—(Bunyan's House of God, vol. 2, p. 579).
[235] After going through the conflict with Apollyon, the Valley of the Shadow of Death, the scenes in Vanity Fair, and the dread experience of the pilgrims in Giant Despair's Castle, it is well to note what a gallery of solemn REALITIES is here, what a system of Divine truth, commending itself to all men's consciences. It is not so much the richness of imagination, nor the tenderness of feeling here exhibited, nor the sweetness and beauty of the imagery, with which this book is filled, as it is the presence of these REALITIES that constitutes the secret of its unbounded power over the soul. Walk up and down in this rich and solemn gallery. How simple are its ornaments! How grave, yet beautiful, its architecture! Amidst all this deep, serene beauty to the imagination, by how much deeper a tone do these pictures speak to the inner spiritual being of the soul! When you have admired the visible beauty of the paintings, turn again to seek their meaning in that light from eternity by which the artist painted them, and by which he would have all men examine their lessons, and receive and feel the full power of their colouring. In this light, the walls of this gallery seem moving with celestial figures speaking to the soul. They are acting the drama of a life which, by most men, is only dreamed of; but the drama is the reality, and it is the spectators only who are walking in a vain show-(Cheever).